A Briton who has been jailed since the 1980s for a double murder has sought to reopen the case by forcing the U.S government to hand over documents which could clear his name.

Former self-made millionaire Krishna Maharaj, 74, who was once the second biggest racehorse owner in the UK, was convicted in 1987 of the murders of two men, Derrick and Duane Moo Young, in the Dupont Plaza hotel in central Miami. He spent 15 years on death row before his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002.

Lawyers for Maharaj have contended for years that Colombian drug cartels were responsible for the deaths, and Tuesday’s a defense motion filed in state court represented the first time they were specific in their allegations.

Former British millionaire Krishna Maharaj and his wife Marita (right) in a prison in Indiantown, Florida

The judge will consider the motion at the hearing and whether the files, believed to be held by U.S. federal agencies, should be released.

The filing sets out testimony provided by several other former members of Colombian drug cartels, who have admitted that Mr Maharaj was not involved in the murder.

Instead, the cartel members say the Moo Youngs were murdered on the orders of drug baron Pablo Escobar.

‘Krishna Maharaj was not involved in the murder of the Moo Youngs, and they had to be eliminated because they had lost Colombian drug money,’ according to one of the drug traffickers quoted in the defense motion.

The lawyers wrote that the killings were
carried out by Escobar hit man Manuel Zuluaga, also known as ‘Cuchilla’
(the Blade); Jaime Vallejo Majia, a convicted cartel money launderer;
and hitman Jhon Henry ‘El Chino’ Rodriguez. Zuluaga died in 1993.

Mr Maharaj pictured listening to proceedings during a week-long hearing at Metro-Dade Courthouse in Miami in 1997

Maharaj was sentenced to the electric chair for the shooting of Derrick Moo Young and his son Duane in Room 1215 of The Dupont Plaza Hotel.
Derrick (right) and Duane (left)

A 1983 file photo (left) of drug cartel boss Pablo Escobar watching a soccer game in Medellin and (right) dressed as a Mexican bandit taken from a photo found on a wall at his former farm in Doradal, Colombia

Penny Brill, an assistant state attorney, said: ‘There is nothing in the (new) motion besides hearsay and inadmissible evidence.’

Prosecutors filed a 79-page response on Tuesday which described the defense motion as ‘nonsensical and wholly speculative’.

Clive Stafford Smith, Mr Maharaj's counsel for more than 20 years and director of legal charity Reprieve, said: 'This is a test for the Florida prosecutors - are they interested in exonerating Kris Maharaj, an innocent man in a wheelchair, or do they want to defend Pablo Escobar for two of the many homicides that he ordered.

'It is also a test for the British Government - will they assist a British citizen to get the evidence he needs, or merely make statements about the need for fair trials?'

During the hearing nearly six years ago, the family of the murder victims pleaded tearfully with the state clemency board to deny Maharaj's request.

US prosecutors told the board that Maharaj had a fair trial and a series of appeal hearings and other investigations that have all come to the same conclusion.

Lawyers for the Bar of England and Wales, the House of Lords and members of the European Parliament have asserted in the past that Maharaj's initial trial did not meet international standards.